Alice in Vegas: Perspective

My rendition of the immortal characters created by Lewis Carroll. From left to right: The Cheshire Cat, The White Rabbit, Alice, The Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts.

I've always wondered how Lewis Carroll actually went about creating such diverse archetypes with his characters. With each character offering a new perspective on curiosity, stealth, jealousy, fear and eccentricity, I've often rediscovered many hidden layers to this story after every read-through. It sure deserves the crown of an ultimate fictional fantasy.

Muninn

“If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows."--Reverend Henry Ward Beecher

Nothing like a retreat into Norse mythology when you feel overwhelmed with yourself. It has always worked for me and it continues as I admit that the Greek Gods were not always the 'historically cool' ones. Norse Gods were brewing their own brawn and dousing their fear in mugs of ale made from the skulls their enemies.

Formidable as Odin was, I was always struck by the fact that he had this fascination for ravens much like Chengiz Khan. His ravens were named Huginn (Thought) and Muninn (Memory). Each day, he would send these two birds off around the world at daybreak to bring him news or tidings. In 'Grimnismal', Odin says

"For Huginn I fear lest he return not home, but I am more anxious for Muninn".

This suggests that Odin valued memory more than thought, something you wouldn't normally conceive about the God of war.

In this illustration, I have sought to represent a 'humaniod' or a 'sprite' (whichever you'd prefer) version of Muninn, which I feel, for obvious reasons should be represented as a feminine apparition. I am also working on Huginn's apparition, although with little success.

W.I.P

It's almost like my blog's got a tad rusty with the lack of updates, so as a filler I'm putting up an (incomplete) bg for my film. It's been three months of solid bonding with the lightbox for me and I miss my sketchbook and my photoshop endevours. :( I also realize that I cannot keep boring you with updates of Jared Leto as my new muse.

I keep promising myself that this is the last month of traditional animation and everytime I do that, my fingers get kinda itchy to pick up a tablet. This is the outcome of one such 'attack' of the itchy fingers, created just a week shy from my jury last month. I sincerely cannot tell you how badly I want to sink my fangs into some good bg work without the burden of animating shots. Pray that I succeed.

Reticuli on turntable

Reticuli from Nimisha Saikia on Vimeo.

I should have uploaded this way back in March, but it took me a while to locate the video file. I'm sorry about the render quality, it's way too low but I had no space in my laptop while I was exporting it. :)

I had made a sketch of this robot sometime during my fourth semester and decided to create it on Autodesk Maya as part of a course. The character is inspired by a wasp, inline skating but mostly by ARCEE ( Fifth Generation Autobot from Transformers Armada, Japan), the coolest female autobot. Even though I'm not too fond of bikes, I thing she can hold off pretty well with her gadgetry.

Feeding Frenzy

Feeding Frenzy from Nimisha Saikia on Vimeo.

Thought of uploading a video to show you guys how my black ghost knifefish feeds on his favourite meal of freeze-dried blood worms. Otherwise a shy and reclusive creature, the nocturnal phantom comes out only to feed, and when it does, oh boy, is it fast!